


A New Panem

by wetsockz



Category: Gale Hawthorne - Fandom, Johanna Mason - Fandom, Johanna Mason/Katniss Everdeen - Fandom, Joniss - Fandom, Peeta Mellark - Fandom, The Hunger Games, katniss everdeen - Fandom, mockingjay - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Fluffy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:53:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24545704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wetsockz/pseuds/wetsockz
Relationships: Johanna/Katniss, Katniss/Gale, Katniss/Peeta
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

I’m awake suddenly. I feel a small amount of panic as my brain struggles to take in my surroundings. My eyes scramble around the room engulfing the blue striped walls surrounding me. Plaid curtains flow in the wind almost rhythmically to the birds chirping outside. I feel calm again; finally realizing I’m in my room, in my bed. 

I get out of bed and walk to the dresser adjacent to me. I get out a plain grey t-shirt and black skinny jeans. The grey shirt I got from 13 back when this whole thing started. Crazy to think that this shirt is still here but Finnick and Prim are not. I’m snapped from my sad thoughts when Buttercup hisses at me from the doorway. 

“Hold on, let me atleast get dressed.” I say, shaking my head to myself for talking to the cat like he understands. 

After I finally get my clothes on and pad my way down the stairs, I’m greeted by Madge who is quickly chopping away at some cabbage. Madge usually comes by to help me cook. Well, really, she just cooks and we both eat it. I can’t muster myself to eat with Peeta anymore and Haymitch is living up to his name as “the drunk.” Neither are things I want to be around right now.

I plop down onto the chair in the dining room while Madge finishes up in the kitchen. Soon she brings out two plates and sets one down in front of me. She made roasted duck with steamed cabbage and other garden vegetables. 

“Looks amazing, thank you Madge. You really don’t have to come over every morning, I sure do appreciate it, but I know there could be other things you could be doing.”

“Oh honey, it’s no problem. I’d rather be here than at the Seam. I do miss the black market though.” She giggles. 

I simply agree by smiling and take a huge bite of the duck. It melts in my mouth. I let out a sigh of relief when I swallow, it’s so good. 

“This is really good!” 

“Thank you, my mother taught me this recipe. And how to roast duck perfectly every time.” She smiles with this undeniable sweetness.

After I finish, I let Buttercup have some scraps off my plate and fried skin from the duck. With that, I walk towards the door to put my boots on. As I walk I notice how run down my house is beginning to look. Although it’s a beautiful home, the walls are eternally bloodstained from the years of Snows reign. Even the furniture is beginning to have dust on it because it hardly gets used. It’s just me. Prim is gone. My mom is in District 2, along with Gale. And, well, Haymitch and Peeta may as well not be here, they are distant even in their own minds. I think they’re just really messed up from the Games. It’s like their minds are numb. 

Madge walks up from behind me, almost scaring me completely out of the boots I just put on.

“I’m gonna go check up on some friends down at the game shop. I’ll be back for dinner if that’s okay. I really do enjoy cooking.”

“Okay, yeah that sounds good! I think I might call some old friends today, or maybe my mom to see if she is alright. But I’ll be home by dinner, and if not feel free to have the place to yourself.” I give her a gentle hug and she exits quickly leaving me all alone, again. 

After about a few minutes of pondering my loneliness I tread out the door. The sun immediately greets me, showing the bright green grass in front of me. I walk down the polished concrete steps and follow the path to the center of the victors village where the fountain stands, dry of course. Not once have I seen water come out of it; maybe in Haymitchs hay day. I glide my fingers across the concrete structure as I walk past and to my surprise a door slams to my left. I snap to look at Peeta. Who is staring at me blankly, like a lost puppy. 

“Where ya going?” He asks quietly, slowly walking towards me with his head down. 

“I’m going to hunt, considering I woke up pretty late today I figured I need to do something productive.” 

“Makes sense.” He stammers, almost as if he’s drunk, but I doubt it with the condition he’s in mentally.

He looks up and locks eyes with me briefly. At that moment I quickly brisk off down the path leading out of the victors village. I turn and wave to Peeta who is staring at me, again, like a lost puppy. I really do owe him a lot but honestly, I’ve repaid most of it. Between saving him in the first games and him saving me in the second I’ve gotten really confused with what I want to be with him. I know he went through so much pain because of me. And Johanna... 

As Johanna’s scarred and burned body flashes continuously in my thoughts I climb over the fence that once was standing, barricading our district 12 from the forests that held our food and game. For years people here didn’t have access to such resources. Now they are all dead, and the fence has fallen. The Capitol has fallen. 

The meadow looks much different than when I was younger. Now it’s intensely overgrown with burrs and all kinds of wild animals, some of which have never been hunted before. I slowly pull out my bow and string an arrow quickly before aiming it at a wild turkey and striking it in the eye. I walk over to it making sure it’s dead before slinging it into my game bag. Considering it’s a huge turkey, I think that’ll be all for today. I start the walk back, slowly. I am not in any rush to get back home to do nothing. It’s a daily thing. I hunt and then go back home to either read in my study or just chill with Buttercup, who is unusually like-able. 

The victors village has such a grand entrance in such a terrible burn pit. All that’s left of the village is three houses. The other three were burned down by the Capitol after the quarter quell. I walk down the solemn concrete slabs back to my home. It’s only been an hour or so, so Madge probably isn’t back yet to cook dinner. 

I waltz in the door and Buttercup runs down the stairs to greet me. I sludge the bag onto the bench near the door and proceed to shut it, but Buttercup almost gets slammed trying to escape. 

Suddenly the phone rings, and I’m almost startled that it still works. I pick it up and muster a hello. A familiar voice greets me from the other end.


	2. Love is Weird

My heart jumps to the sound of Johanna Mason’s voice on the other line. 

“Hello? Katniss? Gale told me I could reach you here.” 

“Johanna! Yes, it’s me Katniss.”

“Well, well, well... good to hear your voice brainless.” Johanna says 

“What, do you miss teasing me in 13?.” I mutter, almost hoping she didn’t hear me. 

“Well that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. Not teasing, but we never really got a chance to get to know each other, and I thought since with all this going on maybe it’d be nice to get away and...” she pauses, “maybe you could come here? You don’t have to, and you don’t even have to stay for long, but I’d enjoy the company.” 

I enjoy this side of Johanna much more than the sarcastic and doubting side, although there’s something about her when she is sarcastic. It’s kind of attractive.

With my mind wondering where it shouldn’t I quickly regain my composure.

“Yes,” for some reason that was the only word that could come out of my mouth. 

“Well, you don’t seem too enthused.” 

“I’d love to. I’m just a little distracted right now. But I want to come Jo....” I pause, “Can I bring my cat though? It was Prims and no one here can take care of him.”

“Of course you can bring him!”

“Okay, well I will see you later, then! I’m getting on the next train out, which should be an hour or so. ” I say trying not to sound overly excited. 

“Okay, awesome! See you soon.” She quickly hangs up the phone without saying anything more. My head scrambles around the fact that I’ll be sleeping in District 7 tonight. 

Looking around I see my bland room, although quite exquisite architecture, it’s overrated. Two closets, a queen-sized bed and a full bathroom. Before all this, I didn’t even have a bathroom let alone a working toilet. In one closet, a smaller one next to the bathroom, I have all my hand-me-downs from my mother and her sisters. The other closet, a walk in, I have specifically for Capitol clothes, like all of Cinna’s dresses and also a copious amount of grey jumpsuits from District 13, none of which suit the place I’m going. I decide to wear a tight fitting green t-shirt and pair it with these leather pants I wore to a Capitol party once. I pull out a sachel my dad made for me and stuff one grey jumpsuit in there, two pairs of jeans and three plain grey shirts. I quickly grab my tooth brush and tooth paste sitting on my dresser and glance back to look at my room before exiting, giving it a mental goodbye. 

Now that I am going through my things I notice I don’t have much, at all. None of this is mine. I love the outdoors here but this place, this district, just isn’t right for me anymore. 

Heading down the stairs I swoop up Buttercup and write a note on a napkin in the kitchen to Madge explaining where I’m going and to call if anything is wrong, and to tell Haymitch and Peeta where I’ve gone. I also tell her to help herself to any of the food left in the pantry. I throw a worn leather jacket over my shoulders, still struggling to hold Buttercup. Then I slip on my boots and we are out the door. 

Before I know it, I am sitting at the train station waiting to be picked up, Buttercup is more than uncomfortable as he squirms around. It makes me think why I’m going to begin with, I’m usually such an introvert. Maybe I shouldn’t go, maybe it’s too much too soon, for Peeta... I should’ve told him. It’s not like me to just up and leave. But I can’t stand it here anymore, being alone. Atleast Johanna is another woman. And we share some things, like the games. Even though I thought she was trying to kill me at first, I have a lot of respect for her now. I mean, she did save my life, then got tortured because of it. 

I am broken from my thoughts when the man in the station office yells out the window, “Katniss, your train is here!” 

I jump up and secure Buttercup in my arms as we board. Flashbacks float in my mind from the Capitol, and my first games. The train had trays of fancy food and drinks. Now there was nothing but emptiness. My bed compartment isn’t nearly as   
spacious as my first one either, but it’ll do for one night. 

I wake up to the smell of pine trees floating in the air and am jolted up. Buttercup greets me by gently pawing at my hand. I pet his head and slide out of the bed and look out the window. 

“We are here”, I think to myself. 

I round up Buttercup and get my bag. The electric door slams open and I am thrown into a metallic hallway that stretches into the sunlight. I get to the end of the hallway and the sun pours in from the open doors in front of me. 

I step out onto a marble platform and take in my surroundings. This is much nicer than 12 already. Nothing was bombed here, and being a richer district, the town seems to be in almost perfect condition. 

Tall pine trees layer the backgrounds and making for quite a grand entrance. There’s not another person in sight, so I slowly walk across the platform to where it meets a concrete pathway heading toward the city. Buttercup jumps out of my arms and walks alongside me. Suddenly, I see a boxy grey car coming down the path. 

A small hand waves out the window. Sure enough, as the car approaches, it’s Johanna Mason, in the flesh. 

“Well hi Brainless, I like your pants.” Johanna says as the car comes to a stop, her eyes floating down to admire my pants. 

“Thanks. You don’t look to bad yourself.” I giggle, winking. 

She smirks and presumes to get out of the car. She comes over and wraps her right arm around me, walking me to the other side, opening my door for me.

“You know I can get me own door right.” I laugh

“Sorry.” She sighs and turns to walk away.

“Johanna,” I reach out to grab her arm and pull her into me, a little closer than I meant to, “doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it, I missed you.” 

She smiles and gently puts her hand up to my face caressing it for a brief second before returning to the driver side. 

I shouldn’t have said I missed her. Too soon. I just miss having company, and she was the closest thing I had to a friend in the Capitol, until we all got separated again.


End file.
